IPG’S STOCK RATING CUT TO ‘SELL.’
Merrill Lynch has downgraded Interpublic from “neutral” to “sell” on the heels of the ad/PR conglom’s loss of three major accounts from General Motors, Washington Mutual and Bank of America.

Merrill’s Lauren Rich Fine, tagging IPG as “not your classic restructuring story,” said the recent loss of GM’s $3B media buying account may be greater than previously thought.

She also cited the loss of one of its largest clients, BoA’s $600M account, to Omnicom and said revenue momentum is “flattish at best” in 2005. Washington Mutual was another recent loss.

Fine noted speculation that IPG would be a candidate for a leveraged buyout or sale, but said that’s unlikely because of an SEC probe and “the diminution of brand equity.”

Interpublic aims to complete the financial review by September 30, but cannot assure that it will meet that deadline.

PIANO TUNES AMGEN’S PR.
Phyllis Piano has joined biotechnology giant Amgen as VP-corporate communications and philanthropy. She is in charge of PR, internal communications, web messaging, brand management, issues and charitable giving.

Previously, Piano was VP-corporate affairs and communications at $20 billion defense contractor Raytheon. She also served as PA chief at Cooper Industries, and spent 17 years at General Electric, a stint that included heading PR for its fast-growth medical systems unit.

Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen develops therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, kidney disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Karen Hughes was sworn-in by Secretary of State Condi Rice on Sept. 9 to be the U.S. propaganda chief. President Bush attended the State Dept. ceremony to honor his trusted PR advisor. The post had been vacant since Margaret Tutwiler resigned more than a year ago to take the PR post at the New York Stock Exchange... Kevin Goldman was named VP/PR for CNBC, replacing Amy Zelvin, who was named VP/communications at NBC Universal Digital Media. Goldman, who was VP/corporate communications for Bookspan, is a former reporter for Variety, Newsday and the Wall Street Journal, where he was an ad columnist. He is the author of “Conflicting Accounts: The Creation and Crash of the Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Empire.”

B-M PUSHES SOCHI AS OLYMPICS HOST.
Burson-Marsteller, which backed Moscow’s failed bid to win the 2012 Summer Olympics, is now handling Sochi, Russia’s, bid for the 2014 Winter Games.

An important health resort on the coast of the Black Sea, Sochi boasts of many mineral springs and sanatoriums. The city has a population of 350K living in a subtropical climate with alpine ski slopes nearby.

Former Olympic champion Dimitri Svatkovsky, an exec. dir. of the Sochi 2014 Bid Committee, noted Russia’s prowess in the Winter Games.

Russia, which has never hosted the Winter Games, has collected more than 550 medals in the competition, said Svatkovsky in a statement to announce the hiring of B-M and Helios Partners, a sports sponsorship firm.

Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of B-M/Brussels, and Terrence Burns, president of Helios in Atlanta, lead Sochi’s charge for the gold.

EGNAL HEADS EDELMAN/S.F.
Warren Egnal, a 20-year PR veteran, has been named executive VP and general manager of Edelman/San Francisco. The 22-member unit calls Clorox, Transamerica and Charles Schwab clients.

Egnal was at Porter Novelli counseling Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Medco and Nextel. Previously, he was at A. Brown Olmstead Assocs, Pacific/West Communications and Telequest.

He reports to Patrick McGuire and Gail Becker, co-presidents of Edelman's western region.

Egnal replaces Nicole Didda, who left the PR firm six months ago and is a management consultant at Mercer Delta in San Francisco.

FD TALKS TRADE FOR TATA.
Financial Dynamics’ Washington, D.C., outpost is handling trade matters for Tata Inc., the U.S. unit of India’s Tata Group.

TI, which markets steel, minerals and engineered products, celebrated its 60th anniversary in the U.S. during a May gala in New York. At the event, India’s Ambassador Ronen Sen congratulated TG on being his country’s “ambassador of industry in the U.S.”

Neil Dhillon, the former Hill & Knowlton PA executive, is handling the TI account.

TG is best-known in the U.S. for its Tata Consultancy Services unit, a leader in the “business process outsourcing” arena, serving the banking, telecom, manufacturing and publishing sectors.

FD also is helping MasterCard, which is planning a stock offering.

LINCOLN GROUP SEEKS PR HELP IN IRAQ.
The Lincoln Group, which is handling PR for the U.S.-led multinational forces holding together Iraq, has two senior PR posts open in that country.

The company said ongoing expansion (it is in the first year of a $6M, three-year PR contract) has opened the immediate need for senior media and PR professionals to guide an advertising and PR campaign to inform the Iraqi people of the Coalition’s goals and to gain their support, according to a description of the work. Strong Middle East experience is required, as is familiarity with reaching mass audiences in a ME country. Salary ranges from $80-150K.

The company is also looking for polling and trend analysis pros to analyze media and compile statistics with the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies.

TLG recently completed a three-month image campaign with Iraq-based Al-Wathba Group to develop collateral material and a messaging strategy to introduce U.S. Marines to “friendly neighbors” and promote good will between the two sides, according to TLG’s revamped website.

TLG began work with a group of investors under the name Iraqex to pick up business on the heels of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Earlier this year it took on the Lincoln Group name. Among its advisors are adman Jerry Della Femina and Larisa Breton and Amy Zalman, principals of Oryx Communications, a New York-based marcom firm focused on the Middle East and Africa.

TLG is also one of three firms to split a $300M, five-year contract awarded this year to put more creativity into the Pentagon’s psychological operations.

SERBIA WANTS TO CHARM MEDIA.
Serbian President Boris Tadic will use 5W PR to promote his pro-western reformist credentials when he visits New York this week for the opening session of the United Nations.

The 46-year-old psychologist, who took the helm of the Democratic Party upon the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, has vowed to move Serbia beyond the thuggish reputation that it earned under the strong-armed rule of Slobodan Milosevic.

According to BBC News, Tadic is eager to cement ties with the European Union and wants his country to “forget the nationalist policies” of Milosevic, which led it to international isolation. The media charm offensive is likely to play up Tadic’s reputation as a “sensible pragmatist” who has the support of young Serbs.

Tadic, while serving as Serbia’s Defense Minister, earned a measure of goodwill from the Bush Administration for his decision to dispatch Serbian troops to Afghanistan.

5W PR CEO Ronn Torrossian is an experienced political operative who has thrived in the rough and tumble world of Israeli politics as an advisor to the Likud party.

The Israeli media reported that Torossian counseled former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during last month’s tumult surrounding the Gaza Strip pull-out.

Netanyahu quit his Finance Minister post to protest the Gaza exit, and is now bidding to oust Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as leader of the Likud.

PR IS AT PEAK, SAYS BURSON.
The PR discipline is in its third stage of development, the peak in its level of maturity, Harold Burson told the Russian PR Assn. on Sept. 8 in St. Petersburg.
PR has grown from the “how to say it,” “what do I say” to the “what to do” phase, said the Burson-Marsteller chairman.

CEOs, in Burson’s mind, view PR people as more than communicators. PR executives at major corporations “make policy and participate in decision-making.”

The “unrelenting demand for increased transparency in the wake of a dozen or so highly publicized corporate governance disasters,” has spurred the maturation of PR.

CEOs now realize that public opinion is more responsive and powerful than ever before, according to Burson. They also recognize that new communications technology produces instant reaction from inpatient stakeholders. The public perception of a company can “be quickly converted into a valued asset or a depressing liability,” he said.

Bad Job of PR

Burson believes PR people don’t do a very good job in explaining what they do. That’s why some people consider PR a “black art” with the purpose to “obfuscate, mislead, cover-up or prevent access to corporate executives and public officials. A popular term of derision for what we do is ‘spin,’ and we who do the ‘spinning’ are called ‘spinmeisters,” said Burson.

The B-M co-founder spoke about PR’s “love-hate relationship” with the media despite the interdependence one has upon the other.

“Press people know they need us to help them do their jobs, a situation that brings about a certain resentment. But let’s face it, at times we can be an obstacle, just as at other times we offer valuable assistance,” said Burson.

The 84-year-old Burson told said he is “optimistic about the future, yours and, even at my age, mine.”

VEITH RESIGNS AT DIRECT IMPACT.
Craig Veith has resigned as president/CEO of Burson-Marsteller’s Direct Impact division after a three-year stint. He wants to pursue other professional interests.

Before joining DI’ in ’02, Veith chaired B-M’s media practice. The former communications director of the National Republican Congressional Committee also served as press secretary for Rep. Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma.

Veith was one of the principals of 360Advantage, an entity formed by politicos from WPP’s Quinn Gillespie & Assocs., B-M, DI and BKSH & Assocs.

The tandem of Dennis Whitfield and Dave DenHerder replaces Veith at DI.

Whitfield, a director at BKSH, becomes chairman. He also served as senior VP at the National Federation of Independent Business, and Deputy Secretary of Labor during the Reagan Administration.

DenHerder joined DI in April to oversee its ally development, media, COM Center and content development activities. He was regional political director for Bush-Cheney `04, where he helped deliver Ohio to the GOP’s column.

HOLD OFF ON WEEKEND JOURNAL PITCHES.
Chris Wailes, VP/media services and editorial director at The Bounce Agency in Greenville, S.C., said PR pros should hold off on pitching the Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Journal, which starts publishing on Sept. 17, until they have a feel for the paper’s “mission, style and tone.”

PR people will “pay with your own personal reputation if you shoot first and ask questions later; one poorly thought out, misdirected and off-target pitch can land you on a very different `do not call’ list,” said Wailes, who was VP/senior media strategist of Weber Shandwick Worldwide’s technology practice group before joining Bounce in 2003.

Some publicists will assume because “it’s the Journal” they know their way around the paper, he said. “Don’t ever make an assumption that risks your client’s reputation. Let the hacks weed themselves out while you figure out who’s going to get your pitch, why they’re the one to get it, what issues or trends they’re writing about that you can help advance and why they would value the access you can provide.”

Get a Feel

“Don’t jump in until you have a feel for the paper’s mission, style and tone. Pick up on the nuances and bylines of the first few editions and then target, target, target,” said Wailes.

“One of the best ways to build credibility with editorial teams at this level is not to make a pitch at all. Provide sources without trying to make an immediate sale. Identify the writers and editors you need to pitch and establish your clients as go-to experts that can advance their beat or a particular ongoing issue.”

Wailes said publicists should think differently than they would for pitching the Mon. through Fri. paper: “think Saturday, think interactive, think personalities and characters.

“Does your Mon. to Fri. button-down client: hot air balloon over the Atlantic; go skydiving; have a 10,000 bottle wine cellar; training to join the International Federation of Competitive Eating? This is not the place for product or service hard-sell.

“Come up with a way for your target Weekend writer/editor to spend time with your client that is 80% adventure and 20% business. Your relationship building will pay off beautifully down the road. This is a long term process. Build trust and value,” he said.

PRESS CLIPS________

Dave Mona, chairman of Weber Shandwick Worldwide Minneapolis, will provide analysis for Univ. of Minnesota football games on WCCO radio, which has been the flagship station for Gopher Football since 1923. Mona is also co-host of “Sports Huddle,” a popular program on WCCO.

Josh Boyd, associate professor of communication at Purdue Univ., has traded in PR textbooks for two novels in his advance PR classes. The novels are Carl Hiaasen’s “Native Tongue” and Christopher Buckley’s “Thank You for Smoking.”

Native Tongue is about a veteran journalist who ends up working an entry-level writing job at an amusement park. Hiaasen portrays PR as “something mercenary and without honor.”

Buckley’s novel is about how a spokesperson for the Academy of Tobacco Studies handles working with smokers’ rights groups and antismoking groups while trying to promote tobacco.

“Even though the stories are fiction, the characters and plot can reinforce theories, ethics and the realities of working in a career such as PR,” said Boyd.

Jonathan Heit, VP/client services for Allison & Ptrs. in Los Angeles, was featured in a testimonial ad for Infiniti automobiles.

The half-page black-and-white ad, which appeared in the Sept. 1 edition of the Wall Street Journal, said “Jonathan Heit drives the Infiniti FX. It’s his dream car—fast and impossible to ignore.”

The ad had a 200-word story about Heit’s career with a Journal-style head shot of the PR exec, who is spokesman for the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which was set up after Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 while a reporter for the Journal.

TEEN TITLE HIRES 142,562 EDITORS.
Girlfriend, a monthly magazine for teenagers in Australia, is ramping up its interactivity with readers and handing control of the magazine’s content over to them, according to The Australian.

From now on, readers will choose the front cover, the stories they want to read, the quizzes, the locations for fashion shoots and who they want on posters by clicking on the magazine’s website.

Girlfriend, which has a paid circulation of 142,562, is also introducing podcasting, by which readers can download gossip, fashion and beauty tips from the magazine’s editorial team, headed by editor Sarah Oakes.

Media numbers________

70—Yankee magazine is celebrating its 70th year of publication by the private, family-owned Yankee Publishing, based in Dublin, N.H.

52—Army Archerd, who stepped down last week, wrote more than 10,000 columns over 52 years for Daily Variety. Nearly every “Just for Variety” column started with “Good Morning.”

WRITER WANTS PHONE PITCHES.
Ruth Katz, a shopping writer for New York magazine, is now a real estate columnist for New York Home.

Katz, who is also shopping editor at Manhattan Living and covers luxury merchandise for Golf Connoisseur, prefers to “vet things” on the phone first with publicists to avoid being inundated with e-mail.

Katz is looking for holiday entertainment items for ML, and she is doing a Christmas gift spread for GC.
She can be reached in New York at 2109 Broadway, 10023; 212/799-4040; fax: 712/1633.

(Media news continued on next page)

A CHECKLIST FOR PLANNING AN RMT.
Maury Tobin, who founded Tobin Communications in 1996, offers these tips for getting the most out a Radio Media Tour.

—Give plenty of lead time to schedule the RMT: “My recommendation is to provide as much lead time as possible before your tour date. Typically, I tell clients that it takes approximately one to two weeks to pitch and schedule radio interviews for an RMT.”

—Provide background information: “Before we begin pitching radio stations for your RMT, we’ll need the following: a press release, a fact sheet, and your spokesperson’s up-to-date biography.”

—Don’t forget the fundamentals of building a compelling story: “Use some creativity to beef up the story. For example, add a timely angle, a regional/local slant and highlight important trends.”

—Don’t try to masquerade advertising for PR: “A sexy ad campaign might be a winner for a specific window of time, but good PR is often about the cumulative effect of integrated communications and a steady drumbeat of a variety of strategies and tactics. Think about creating both credibility and buzz.”

—Setting the spokesperson’s schedule: “We always recommend that you secure a block of time for your spokesperson during the early morning hours, when most radio interview opportunities exist. If your RMT involves more than 25 interviews that will take place over a series of days or weeks, I recommend recruiting an additional spokesperson to share the load and/or fill in.”

—Give the spokesperson proper training: “Nothing is worse than a spokesperson who is uninspiring or who can’t stay on message.”

—Use hard phone line: “To ensure optimum sound quality, we always recommend that your spokesperson conduct the RMT on a hard phone line instead of a cordless or cellular phone.”

Tobin Communications is located in White Plains, Md. Tobin can be reached at 301/392-9173.

PEOPLE________

Steve Capus was named acting president of NBC News, replacing Neal Shapiro, who resigned.

MacKenzie Parks was appointed editor of the New York Post’s new “Workplace” section, and Lindsay Powers was named staff reporter and weddings editor.

Alyssa Kolsky, previously assistant beauty editor of Bazaar, is joining Vitals magazine as beauty editor, and Eva Herzog, an associate features editor at Bazaar, has resigned to freelance.

Geraldine Sealey, formerly a senior editor at Salon, was named articles editor at Glamour magazine.

Kusum Lynn, formerly at Nylon, was named fashion director of Jane magazine.

Charles McNulty, currently a senior editor at the Village Voice, where he oversees its theater, TV, and entertainment coverage, is joining the Los Angeles Times as theater critic in Dec.

MEDIA BRIEFS________

Cosmopolitan magazine is starting a radio channel on Sirius Satellite Radio which will have talk shows targeted at female listeners, and featuring Cosmo editor-in-chief Kate White and other editors and writers from the Hearst magazine.

Organic Style, monthly lifestyle magazine founded in 2001 by Rodale, will stop publishing after the Oct. number, which goes on newsstands Sept. 20. About 38 staffers are affected by the closing.

CMP Media’s Network Magazine has changed its named to IT Architect and hired Michel Labelle to write a column called “First Draft,” which appears in the Sept. issue, according to Art Whittmann, editor-in-chief of the Manhasset, N.Y.-based publication.

North American Precis Syndicate is cited by Federal investigators looking into the Education Dept.’s PR contracts for getting $2,650 to produce a 284-word infomercial for the National Center for Education Statistics website.

USA TODAY ADDS HEALTH NEWS PAGE.
Susan Weiss, managing editor of USA Today’s “Life” section, said the paper will expand its health coverage with a weekly page devoted exclusively to health topics.

Every Monday, the paper will deliver timely, practical and accessible health news—from diet and nutrition to cancer and heart disease, she said.

“A Better Life: Health” will include a new health column that will address topics of personal interest to readers, who will be offered the opportunity to ask questions and express their concerns in the column.

The expanded health coverage for the new weekly page will also include new quarterly in-depth special reports covering such topics as health, allergies, arthritis, colds and flu.

The first quarterly feature will run in Jan. and focus on heart health.

PLACEMENT TIPS_________

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association in Boston has begun publishing a new bimonthly consumer magazine titled Get Active!, which will be distributed through IHRSA’s U.S. member health clubs.

Media kits are available on request by contacting John Speaker at 603/672-5545 ext. 204.

Jim Schmaltz is handling editorial inquiries at 310/445-7505.

Washington Flyer, a bimonthly magazine published by The Magazine Group, keeps business travelers informed of the ins-and-outs of dining, shopping in D.C. as well as offering travel and lifestyle advice.

The magazine maintains an active website, and is featured on a weekly segment on WTOP radio.

Kenneth Day, previously director of marketing, strategy and communications for Roll Call, has joined WF as publisher.

Shona Seifert, formerly of Ogilvy & Mather, who is going to jail for 18 months and paying a $125K fine for falsely billing the U.S. Government, on Aug. 30 gave the court a written a code of ethics for the ad industry, as she was ordered to do.

There is, of course, no shortage of ad industry and other ethics codes. Siefert lists 16 codes including those of the American Assn. of Adv. Agencies; WPP Code of Corporate Social Responsibility; Johnson & Johnson; General Electric, and the U.S. Marine Corps Code. We like the Marine code for its simplicity. It says:

“Integrity is a variable and tends to degrade over time if not reinforced.”

The “biggest risk” that Siefert met in her work (billing clients) was that it was “boring.”
She writes: “The advertising industry places a higher value on big ideas than we do on process. The processes for accurately recording time and costs are unpopular at most ad agencies. We feel more pressure to do other work that we perceive to be more valuable to our client.”

More than ever, she adds, “ad agencies are challenged by short-term financial pressures.” Time pressures and the “boring,” repetitive nature of detailed record-keeping are blamed by Siefert for O&M’s overbilling the U.S. Government.
Siefert offers well-worn advice: “Don’t stretch the truth”...don’t sign paperwork you haven’t checked...“stay true to your values, be brave”...“don’t be afraid to tell the client their demand is unfair”...“think before you act.”

We’re perplexed by all this talk of ethics because most of the bad stuff we see is not covered by any of the codes. At least that’s what the enforcers of the codes say. There’s always some loophole.

For instance, about eight hours of our notes were stolen from an open PRSA conference bag while we were covering the 2003 Assembly. This greatly interfered with our coverage of that fractious Assembly that defeated decoupling APR from Assembly membership by six votes. With us when the theft happened was director Gerry Corbett of Hitachi America. We told him and he helped us search the immediate area. PRSA PR manager Cedric Bess was told and asked for PRSA’s tape of the Assembly to assist us in coverage. He was unable to get it for us the next day as requested. PRSA did not supply the tape until about two weeks later. Neither PRSA leaders nor the ethics board have shown any interest in the theft, telling us to go to the police. Police see it as a “misdemeanor” and not very serious. It’s not breaking and entering, armed robbery, etc., they said.

Ethics chair Dave Rickey, asked about the theft on Sept. 2, said he didn’t think it was something that the code addressed. How about members’ promise to “deal fairly” with the media and others, we asked? September is Ethics Month at PRSA.

Its code says “Ethical practice is the most important obligation of a PRSA member.” Members promise to “report ethical violations, whether committed by PRSA members or not, to the appropriate authority.”

Ad people were tested for their ethical sense in The Moral Media (4/27/05 NL).

Sixty-five ad pros took the “Issues Defining Test,” which tests a person’s interest in society at large vs. personal considerations. “Ad people think about immediate consequences when deciding how to act,” says the book. “At the very least,” it says, they “choose not to exercise the ethical reasoning abilities they have.”

PRSA is again using Dr. Mark Schilansky, a Catskill, N.Y., podiatrist, as parliamentarian for its Assembly in Miami Oct. 22. He also served in 2004.
Previously PRSA hired local parliamentarians.

Schilansky is in Schilansky & Binnall, which is the top advertiser on Google’s parliamentarian listings.

The firm provides numerous services including helping groups revise their bylaws. Schilansky promises to go “around the country and around the world” to serve clients. Partner Jesse Binnall is based in Northern Virginia.

S&B charges $150 an hour with a six-hour minimum. Since Schilansky is from Catskill, there will be additional charges for travel, meals, hotels.

The website of S&B (parliamentarians.net/site) identifies Schilansky as “Dr.,” not indicating that his specialty is foot medicine. The site warns that “people can misuse parliamentary procedure to pursue their own agendas.” It provides “Seven abused points of Parliamentary Procedure” such as people using “point of information” when they want to give information. A debate can’t be ended by simply calling the question and makers of motions have no special rights to amend them, says the site.

Highlighting a weakness of parliamentarians, the site points out they may “only advise the presiding officer and may not make rulings. The chair has no obligation to follow the parliamentarian’s advice.”

The 2003 Assembly was marred by two false rulings–that an agenda had to be adopted before it could be changed (no agenda at all need be adopted), and that the loser in a vote could bring up the matter for a re-vote in the same day.

Only the winning side may do this.

Parliamentarians tell us that where there are two sides to an issue (such as decoupling) each side should have its own parliamentarian. Leadership supported decoupling in 2003 and hired the parliamentarian. Those against decoupling should have had their own parliamentarian. Chapter delegates this year should have their own parliamentarian and not rely on Schilansky. This year the 56 non-APR chapter presidents (out of 110 chapters) can appoint themselves as delegates (“the chapter president...may at any time designate an alternate chapter delegate”) and they could bring about major, much needed changes in PRSA governance. About 45 chapters have 100 or fewer members.

– Jack O'Dwyer